In a jolt to the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, three former party legislators Tuesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, while one former Shiv Sena MLA also followed suit.
The ex-MNS trio includes former party strongman Pravin Darekar of north Mumbai, Vasant Geete from Nashik and Ramesh Patil from Kalyan in Thane.
Shiv Sena's former lawmaker Kashinath Mengal from Igatpuri, Nashik also joined the BJP which is currently on a statewide membership drive.
The four leaders, along with many of their supporters, joined the BJP in the presence of its newly-appointed state president Raosaheb Patil Danve.
Darekar, once a key MNS functionary, fell out of favour with party chief Raj Thackeray after the debacle in the October 2014 assembly election.
While the MNS was wiped out in the last Lok Sabha election, it secured just one seat in the assembly, as opposed to 13 in the 2009 assembly election.
Welcoming them into the party fold, Danve said that they had "faith in the BJP leadership of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah" and dismissed allegations of corruption against Darekar.
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